Sapphire Pure PC-AM2RX780 Review

Introduction:

There are so many chipsets available on the market no matter what processor you choose these days. Figuring out the system you want to build is where you need to start with what motherboard you need. Do you need to run single or dual graphics cards? How many SATA ports do you require? What type of processor will you be running? Lastly, and most importantly, what will the computer's purpose be? Answering these questions can be a task in itself but with a variety of platforms available you have more hardware at your fingertips to make your selection the best one. One chipset that is out that you may have heard little about is the AMD 770 chipset. The AMD 770 chipset, which uses the same architecture as the 790 chipset, combines an AMD 770 Northbridge and a SB600 Southbridge for a powerful combination without a lot of overhead. Don't let this chipset fool you though. The AMD 770 supports AM2/AM2+ processors with HyperTransport 3.0 technology. It also supports CrossFireX with its dual PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots and all this with power saving features to top it off. Today we are going to take a look at Sapphire's offering of the AMD 770/SB600 chipset the Sapphire Pure PC-AM2RX780 motherboard. This board takes Sapphire's proven design technology and combines it with this latest chipset to provide you with a fast platform for your computing needs.

Closer Look:

The outside of the packaging is the green colored motif that Sapphire includes on its Pure motherboards packaging. On the front of the box are some limited specs for the PC-AM2RX780 motherboard along with the logos of the supported hardware. The back of the packaging expands on the supported hardware and the features of the 770 chipset. There is also a picture of the motherboard so you can see what it looks like prior to purchase.

Opening the box lets you get a view of what is included with the Sapphire 770 board. Sapphire has given you just enough to get started with your board while keeping the costs down. This is nice because you don't end up paying for stuff that you will never use. Included is the PC-AM2RX780 motherboard, the manual, the driver CD, one SATA cable, one IDE cable, the I/O shield plate with a color coded cover, and a PCI Express Switch Card which is used to enable full x16 speeds for a single graphics card solution.

Now that everything is un-boxed, let's move on over and take a look at the board more closely.